2 Samuel 16:9,11 - "Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over, I pray thee, and take off his head...let him alone, and let him curse; for the Lord hath bidden him."

Matthew 7:15 - “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.

Matthew 24:11 - “…and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.”

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Vain Religious Arguments About Religion - Who Cares About the Gospel!

Let me be clear. No one lives forever. No one has eternal life. Period. Let that sink in. Is there any statement more obvious, and less subject to argumentation than that one? How do I know? The same way every other human that ever lived knows. Everyone dies. Now, let the theologians jump in and the apologists' name calling begin. Let them explain how they do in fact have eternal life and you can have it too. But no matter what they argue, You are still going to die no matter what you believe. Deal with it. Look, since that argument is no longer open to debate, theologians and religious people have to start the explanations about their holy book and what they believe and have faith in. It's the same thing they do when I say God doesn't provide shoes to us, or houses to live in. So obvious a statement of fact, except for hypothetical religious beliefs and theological mumbo jumbo. And did Jesus say, "this is sort of like my body" take thee and eat of it? Do you believe you are actually eating his body. Does the Bible say its his body or not?The Catholics can explain how and why it is. The Protestant (you and me) says, I'm not buying it. But must we throw out everything else the Catholic believes? Of. Course. Not.

Now, I understand that EVERY single world religion will be quick to explain that you only get eternal life AFTER you are dead. None are crazy enough to say that you get it now. I get that. I can, and do, have hope and faith that it is true, DESPITE every single piece of evidence in the entire world from the beginning of time to now does not support it. I CAN and DO still have faith that it will be true when I die. I can't disprove that it happens, I can't see that it doesn't happen, so I can honestly choose to have faith and hope that it will happen. I can't, on the other hand, have faith and hope that donkeys or trees talk or reason or that the sun can stand still while it circles the earth. Question: Does he give us eternal life here? No. You zealots, if alive at the time of Christ, would have argued with Jesus that the Bible clearly said he gives eternal life and it means what it says. But when people all around us started dying and kept dying for centuries, even the most devout religious nut jobs of every religion knew they had to quickly change the theology and dogma to fit reality. That is all I am also doing. I've changed my dogmatic beliefs based on reality and what I see God doing and what I see God not doing.

So, go ahead and explain again using your holy book how that means you can be CERTAIN that you will have eternal life only after you die first, and ONLY if you give intellectual assent to the CORRECT set of facts. And this applies to those that die of cancer and other diseases. Explain to all of us that they will be healed in heaven, not here, IF they get there by believing the correct set of facts.

But why get mad at me when I point out that we don't have eternal life here and that he doesn't heal us from autism, downs syndrome, alzheimer's and most cancers here? He doesn't. So what? Why does that bother some of you so much? Do you want to keep lying about God?Why can't you just love and trust him for what we know he does, and not for what we hypothetically argue that he could or would do except for his "morally defensible reasons?"

Whose morals? Yours, or the Muslim terrorists? They have good reason for Jihad. Christians had good reasons for the crusades. Religious leaders had, and still have it seems, good morally sufficient reasons for covering up sexual abuses in the church.

So, for those of you who wish me to debate my "theology", I say no thanks. I'm not interested in arguing with you anymore than I am in going over to a Muslim website and debating the Muslim on their beliefs. I also am not interested in debating the Catholic apologist or going to a Catholic person's website and arguing about the many things we disagree on. I am not interested in going to a Jehovah Witnesses' website and trying to persuade them where they are wrong. And I don't wish to debate the Jewish rabbis or Jewish adherents about whose God is real and who is going to hell and who isn't based on their beliefs. Why? Because all of those folks can give reasons that seem perfectly sufficient to them, but certainly not to anyone other than those that already agree with them. I know the readers of this blog don't agree with them.

So now you know how I feel about you. The same as you feel about the Catholics and Jews. Some are great people, sincere people, loving people, devoted religious people, but they are wrong on some things. And I certainly believe SOME of what the Jews and Catholics believe, but not ALL. And so do YOU. Yet you insist that I must believe it all and can't pick and choose which parts I believe. Yet you do the exact same thing when it comes to Catholics and Jews. Right? Don't keep reading so fast...Right? Amen? Amen!

So I will continue to post from time to time on the nonsense I see in what used to be my personal belief system before it was hijacked by far right, fundamentalist wackos. Not to convince them that I am right and they are wrong, since that is impossible when debating ANY religious beliefs, but mainly just to point out where the charlatans have led us astray and how ridiculous some of their tertiary beliefs are. Only cults so strongly accuse others that you "hate God" and "hate the Bible" just because you disagree with them on some application of the scriptures. You don't hate the Catholic church or Jews do you, just because you disagree with them on some things about God and salvation and the Bible? Only cults will tell you that you will burn in hell even if you are trusting Christ for salvation if you don't also believe in their theological reasonings. Are you a cult member? Only cultmembers will insist that you cannot believe ANY part of their religious beliefs unless you believe ALL of them. Are you a cult member or not?I assume the Methodist, Presbyterian, Catholic, Jew, moderate Baptist, non-denominational Christians, et al, would all simply try and find where we agree, (like trusting in Christ for salvation for example), and not try to convince me that I should not, and can not, trust in Christ unless I also believe every single other thing they believe in. No, only religious nut jobs and fanatics would hold to such a view.

And for some reason, it seems those are the ones that read and then respond so ugly to my observations. It just reinforces to me that what I am blogging about is oh so true. And sad. They have reasons and explanations why God blesses them with shoes, while allowing innocent children to be raped and Christians to be beheaded. It all makes sense to them. They quickly then try to ask you to prove your beliefs and defend your views, because they know no amount of arguing will change the reality of their beliefs in the real life arena of public discourse and in real life applications. They know "proving" any of our views on spiritual matters is impossible, since they get asked to prove their views all the time and simply can't do it. I can "prove" that everyone dies. And that God is not healing autism or alzheimers or putting shoes on my feet or a roof over my head.

So, here's an idea: You fundamentalist religious nut jobs that want to lecture me and scold me on your beliefs, why not go over to the local hospital and tell it to those doctors who have invested their lives in practicing medicine to actually help heal people. Better yet, explain it to their dying patients. Show them your shoes and pictures of your house. Tell them how God is the great physician and healer. That he is "good, all the time" and "has a plan for their lives" and is "in control." And that by his stripes they are healed. Go debate them. Go over to the universities physics and biology and chemistry departments and lecture those scientists and their students on how things work. Pray for healing of autism and alzheimers and never give a penny to those scientists and doctors who are striving to find cures. Give money to your local church instead and not to any of the above places because the only thing that really matters is whether or not people believe exactly like you do. I mean God has a reason for not providing a cure so why pray and try to find one? He is in control. Pray for fire to come down out of heaven and consume wet timber. It happened before, right, so God "could" do it again, amen? Let's go out into the woods and debate if he will do it or not. We both know he won't. So, I'll continue to point out that God doesn't do those kinds of things. He doesn't provide shoes. He doesn't give any of us a roof over our heads. But did he send his son to die for my sins? I CAN AND DO actually have faith that he did. And that makes me a Christian. Or as one "man of God" put it: "HA!"

Happy Holidays. More real life observations coming this Season. (Please don't boycott my blog because I used the word "holiday" instead of Christmas there.)

9 comments:

Readers - I am reminded that I completed study courses in both Evangelism Explosion (EE) and Continuing Witness Training (CWT) and neither course mentioned anything about believing the Bible is inerrant/infallible or having to believe it all or none. Maybe they need to update their curriculum? Or maybe I need to go back and review the materials. I don't recall that being part of the "good news" or Gospel.

It's all about money and power. None of these churches care about anything but themselves. They give money to preachers today like they gave money to the Catholic Church back before the Reformation....I think these folks think giving thier 10% is like " buying" their way into heaven. The old indulgence is back.....just in a new form....

A Sufi mystic said, “The function of the orthodox community is to give the mystic his desire, which is a union with God, through mortification and death.”

We can adapt the above into, "The function of the fundamental christian community is to give the believer his desire, which is a union with God, through mortification and death (via rules, behavior and compulsory set of beliefs as in "All Or Nothing").”

Anon - I believe it was mentioned in John 3:16. And no, it was not tied to dying first. Theologians and seminarians had to come up with an explanation since what was clearly stated was that the believer would not perish and would have eternal life. Uh oh. Now its up to us to explain and reconcile what he really meant.

THANK YOU for your common sense thoughts, Watchdog. It makes me feel sane, as I have been on this same journey after leaving the Baptist "religion." I am having to unlearn a lot of self-righteous nonsense, and feel quite guilty not having realized sooner that I was in a cult like environment which is incredibly judgmental, worships their leaders, covers child sexual abuse, guilts members into tithing and so on. It is so freeing to be away from all that and I am so thankful for the peace that comes with moving on and growing in my Christian life.

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About Me

We're small, insignificant, and harmless. But we have a loud, piercing bark that seems to annoy those in mega churches the most. Not Kool-Aid drinkers, only fresh, filtered water, please; with Grape or Cherry flavoring from Walmart. "Let him alone; God hath bidden him to speak:"